How My Road to Omaha Fared: Miami still in, UCLA bows out late.

ROAD TO OMAHA -- A lot of people pick the NCAA Basketball tournament every year. It's a mainstay and it's probably the most participated activity done in March next to drinking on St. Patrick's Day. Well, I like filling out the brackets, but I'll pretty much do it in every sport, including the double elimination round of the Road to Omaha.

This year, I picked the 64-team field and had 11 of my 16 picks advancing. Now anyone can pick the favorites and with the eight national seeds it's rather easy, however, who's got the balls to pick a 2, 3 or 4 seed?

Of the 16 No. 1 seeds, 13 advanced to the Super Regionals. Three lower seeds prevailed with one of them being No. 4 seed Fresno State out of the Long Beach Regional.

I correctly picked No. 2 seeds Wichita State and UC-Irvine to advance. You can credit Doc for helping me pick the Shockers out of the Stillwater Regional (Oklahoma State), because I got to see Wichita State play the Missouri Valley Conference championship on Fox Sports Midwest while I was in Crystal Lake for his wedding. I had a pretty good feeling about the Shockers taking out Oklahoma State and I was right.


Call it a hunch, but Nebraska hasn't been as dominating as they were in the past. They had ace Johnny Dorn, and the well ran dry after that. All the rest of their sluggers had graduated or drafted recently and were currently residing in Palm Beach with the Cardinals. The Anteaters were still pretty loaded from their trip to Omaha last year and with Scott Gorgen on the mound, I liked their chances. They didn't disappoint.

Where I went wrong...

I originally had Coastal Carolina winning their regional, but at the last second I picked Alabama. Bold move, went with history and got blasted for it. However, you gotta give credit to the Chanticleers, they played up to their top seed and made the NCAA committee look good.

I had Texas winning the Houston Regional over Rice. Why? Mostly because I feel the world of college baseball hates me and karma magically picks the teams I dislike to advance... like Texas. Nothing worse than seeing the "Hook'em Horns" for three more weeks. Well, thanks to Wayne Graham and his Rice Owls, that's not going to happen. A loss I'll take any day.

I picked Long Beach State to come out of their own regional. Even though I knew that was the most loaded regional in the country with San Diego, California and Fresno State, I thought the Dirtbags would pull it off. They didn't even make it to the championship. Fresno State whacked them early and San Diego squeeked in to the championship game, only to choke again, making me wonder how they'll take being banished to the realm of the unknown again with ace Brian Matusz leaving for the draft this year. On a side note, Fresno State was the one No. 4 I would have picked. But who's going to believe that?

My next loss was a sentimental pick with Kentucky coming out of the Ann Arbor Regional. They finished second to Arizona, but I figured the upstart Kentucky boys were explosive enough to get by Michigan in teh first round (they didn't) and would just let the offense ride against the less deep pitching staff of Arizona (not used to playing in the cold weather of Michigan in late May). It really didn't matter who won this regional because they were the No. 16 seed heading into Miami where they would ultimately get destroyed by the Hurricanes. I highly doubt Andy Lopez will do better than he did the last time he was in Miami for the post-season. All of a 5-foot-8 sophomore walk-on southpaw named Roger Lincoln from Stetson sent Lopez and his Florida Gators packing (literally and figuratively) in the elimination round of the regional.

My last error really hurt me bad because they were my pick to make Omaha all season: UCLA. I saw the Bruins last year on my way back from Stockton, Calif. I was visiting my aunt in Glendale and stopped at Jackie Robinson Stadium to see UCLA play Pepperdine in a midweek game.

The Bruins weren't totally explosive, but they were fundamental, scrappy, used their strengths and had almost everyone returning. I liked guys like Jermaine Curtis, Alden Carrithers, Casey Haerther, Cody Decker, Brandon Crawford, Ryan Babineau, Jason Novak and two-way star Tim Murphy. They looked like they had the formula to make it to Omaha. Cal-State Fullerton ruined that. In fact, Fullerton blew through Virginia and UCLA twice.

UCLA had them too in the first game when they reeled off 17 hits and left 11 men on base, but lost 11-8.

As it is, I shall be pulling for the Miami Hurricanes from here on out and probably Coastal Carolina and if I had to pick a third team it would be Wichita State or LSU. I know LSU has just dominated the stretch run, but how awesome would it be to see Miami and LSU battle it out just like they did 12 years ago when LSU was on the same kind of streak?

That was one of the best College World Series I've ever watched. Hopefully this field of 16 remaining will do the same.